Sins of The Weevil
by Trufreak89
Summary: Sequal to Tears of the Weevil. After returning to Torchwood Gwen has a lot to deal with. From her adult daughter and the team’s suspicions to the threat of a new outbreak.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Sins of the Weevil

**Summary:** After returning to Torchwood Gwen has a lot to deal with. From her adult daughter and the team's suspicions to the threat of a new outbreak.

**Disclaimer: **Torchwood doesn't belong to me. All I own is my imagination and Lacey (OFC) 

**Rating: **T - (Not really for now, but will be needed later)

**A/N: **This is a sequel to Tears of the Weevil, if you haven't read it you will be very confused. Also it's pretty much a mixed bag of het and femslash, with hints of slash in. Gwen/Owen, Tosh/Lacey, Jack/Ianto.

"Lacey! Hurry your arse up!" Owen grumbled as the mattress he had leaning against his back began to lurch forward, threatening to crush him. The grinning blonde bounced to the bottom of the stairs and pushed past him, brazenly taking the mattress and pulling it up the stairs like it was a pillow. Owen shook his head as Toshiko handed him a mug of coffee. 

"What the hell do you feed her?" He scoffed as a few moments later she ran down the stairs again to collect more things from the rental van outside. 

Toshiko smiled as she watched the blonde wrestle with a duvet. "She's certainly energetic." 

"Energetic? She never bloody stops!" The young woman had appeared in their lives only a few days earlier, returning from the future with Gwen, and they had soon learnt it was hard to keep her still for very long. 

As Gwen seemed to be cutting herself off from all but the blonde it had been strange when she had asked Toshiko to let Lacey have her spare room until they found something more permanent. Lacey had been happy enough though, especially when Jack had given her a Torchwood credit card to buy furniture and clothes with. They laughed as she stumbled up the stairs with her duvet, one pillow jammed between her teeth and another pinned under her arm. 

"Careful." Toshiko lifted up the trailing duvet and tucked it back securely in Lacey's hands. 

Owen frowned as he watched the blonde's gaze avert Toshiko's smiling face and mumble a quick 'thanks' before darting up the stairs. "There's somick not right about her." He whispered, catching Toshiko's attention.

"She's been pulled from her own time Owen, she obviously needs time to settle in." He made a noncommittal grunt to keep her from lecturing him but made a note to find out what he could about the girl. He had to make sure Toshiko was safe living with her. And of course his motives had nothing to do with the way Gwen looked at the younger girl, or the way she fiercely protected her. 

"Lacey!" They were barely through the door when Gwen called for the younger girl. "You settling in to Tosh's ok?" She forced herself to smile, but Owen could see through the façade. It was killing her not having the girl in her sight. 

"Yip. I'm still trying to convince her to let me have a house warming though-"

"Not happening." Toshiko's voice travelled from her desk where she was buried in a mixture of papers and alien technology.

"Ooo, shiny!" The blonde skilfully escaped Gwen by scampering off to see what Toshiko was working on.

"She's a big girl Gwen." Owen teased as he watched her anxiously watch the younger girl. Big mistake. She rounded on him, her eyes dark and her brow furrowed. 

"Stay the hell away from her Owen. I mean it!" 

"Whoa!" He held his hands up in mock surrender. "I'm not interested in blondey. I'm just saying, she's an adult, she can look after herself." He made his exit before Gwen's piercing glare could actually cause him physical damage. 

She knew she was fussing too much, after all Lacey had gone her whole life without Gwen watching over her and she'd turned out alright. After the death of her adoptive family she had raised herself and later not only taken care of herself but a mentally unstable Toshiko too. 

She occasionally glanced over at the two of them throughout the morning. Toshiko eagerly taught the blonde about all of the devices around them, things Lacey could use in her sleep, while the younger girl pretended to be amazed by technology that was obsolete when compared to her own time. Gwen would often catch her eye and smile reassuringly, as though it came naturally. She'd smile back and return to being content with Toshiko as her guide. Neither let on to the other, nor anyone else, that inside the grief they felt was slowly killing them.

Pleeeaaase! Lacey emphasised the word like a teenager rather than the twenty-one year old she was. After living with Toshiko for two days she had become set on having a party. 

Lacey. Toshiko sighed as she ran a hand through her loose hair and pushed her book away. No party. I dont want my house full of

Children? Toshiko had been going to say drunken people but the end of her sentence died in her throat. Something in Laceys voice, and the way she looked at her with such intensity told her shed expected to be called a child. 

Youre an adult Lacey, I respect that. Im just not big on parties.

As quickly as the awkwardness had come it disappeared, leaving the blonde as bubbly as ever. Cmon Tosh! I dont even know anybody yet! Just have the guys over for pizza or something? Pleeeaaaase? A white pearly grin, that strongly reminded her of Jack, was flashed at her and Toshiko found herself giving in.

Alright. Ill invite them over tonight. The younger girl had a way of getting under her skin. Even though shed been opposed to a party she found herself looking forward to the evening and once immersed in planning she had completely forgotten her worries about inviting the team over. After what theyd been through with Gwens disappearance she supposed they deserved a celebration of some sort to welcome their newest member.

Hey Tosh, what do you think? Toshiko dropped the bag of pretzels shed been holding at around the same time her jaw dropped. The blonde grinned, obviously pleased with the reaction. She stood, at almost six foot tall, dressed in a black dress that cut off above her knee, exposing strips of tanned skin that escaped the reach of her knee high boots. In the four or so days shed known the girl Toshiko had never seen her in anything but jeans. She grinned as she bounced in to the kitchen and took a seat on one of the benchs. Even in heels she moved with the grace and speed of a lion. Toshiko swallowed a lump she didnt even realise she had in her throat and picked up the discarded bag. 

You look lovely. She ducked her head as she poured the pretzels in to two bowels and tried to ignore the way the younger girls hair tickled her as she leant over to steal a pretzel. 

You look awesome. Lacey complemented before shoving another pretzel in to her mouth. Toshiko blushed, compared to the younger girl she looked like she was going to some student bar, dressed in dark jeans and a new shirt shed bought a few days earlier. 

When the doorbell rang out in the quiet house Lacey jumped down from the bench, landing with ease on her feet and rushed to the door. Toshiko shook her head, although she was almost twenty-two sometimes the blonde did in-fact seem like a child. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: **Sins of the Weevil

**Disclaimer: **Torchwood doesn't belong to me. All I own is my imagination and Lacey (OFC)

**Rating: **T

After everyone had arrived and took a seat with the drink of their choice they'd started a discussion about what movie to watch first. It hadn't lasted long after both Lacey and Owen had decided on an action film they both loved. Toshiko sat on the end of the largest sofa, with Ianto and Jack on the other side while Gwen, Owen and Lacey sat opposite them. After arguing to watch their chosen film so much neither Lacey nor Owen seemed to be paying much attention to it. Instead they sat talking about some football match. At least Toshiko thought it was a football match. All she had gathered was that it involved a ball.

She sat watching as the two immersed themselves within their animated conversation, ignoring everyone else; Including Jack who threatened to shoot one or both of them if they didn't keep quiet. Toshiko felt a pang of jealousy as the younger blonde held Owen's attention with ease. Had it been Toshiko talking during his so called favourite film she would have been promptly told to keep quiet.

Owen had never seen Lacey looking quite so… Toshiko couldn't put her finger on the word. Quite so what? Feminine? Dressed up? Mature? After another threat from Jack, during which he actually pulled out his gun for emphasis, the pair fell silent. "Who wants ice cream?" Lacey's silence didn't last for long.

After returning from the kitchen she bypassed the sofa she'd been sitting on and instead chose to sit down in front of the other sofa, settled between Toshiko's legs. Owen didn't seem to mind, he used the extra space to spread out.

"We need to get back." Jack pulled on his jacket and tugged at Ianto's arm. "Lots of…filing to do." Ianto offered Toshiko an apologetic smile before getting to his feet and following Jack.

"Yeah I should be off too." Owen stood and stretched before looking down at Gwen. "You want a lift?"

"Sure." She mumbled her reply before reaching for her jacket. "It was a lovely night." She smiled at Toshiko. "I'll see you both tomorrow."

The cool night air hit Gwen the second she stepped out of Toshiko's house. She'd only drank a couple of beers but after months with very little drinking the alcohol seemed to take more of a toll on her.

"Whoa." Owen's hand found the small of her back as she stumbled walking to the car. His breath was warm against her neck as he helped her in to the front passenger seat. His hand lingered on her shoulder longer than was needed and she shoved it off.

He'd just closed the door when she blurted out, "I'm not fucking you Owen."

"Did I ask for a fuck?" His brows knitted as he started the car. "Just because Rhys can't get it up doesn't mean-"

"Shut up!" She growled. "Turn left here. I'm staying at the hotel at the end of the road." Owen fell silent as the meaning of her words hit him. Finally he managed to ask. "You and Rhys broke up?"

"I left him." Gwen admitted. "When I came back…it was just too hard. He's going to be ok, he'll end up marrying the new neighbour, Sarah. They'll have a beautiful baby boy." Owen's foot hit the accelerator as they approached the hotel. "What the hell are you doing?"

"You're not staying in that dump."

"I'm not fucking you." Gwen repeated stubbornly.

"Suit yourself."

"Lacey?" After showing the others out Toshiko returned to find the living room empty. "Lacey? Where are you?" She checked the kitchen and found the back door open. Stepping out on to the patio she found the young girl sitting on the damp grass and staring up at the starless sky.

"Tonight was fun." She kept her gaze fixed on the sky. "Like old times. We used to all have movie nights when I first joined Torchwood…it was the only time we had to forget about Weevils. Ianto made great popcorn…" The older woman recognised the tone in her voice. She was slipping inside her memories, inside the despair that all Torchwood members had experience of.

"You'll freeze." She tried to coax her back inside. "Come back in, we can finish the film, and the popcorn-"

"These last couple of days have been amazing." Something in the young girl's voice tore at Toshiko's heart. It was as though the words were laced with all the pain and sadness she had ever encountered. "I keep waiting for something to go wrong. I haven't been this happy in a long time…Thank you."

The gathering had obviously meant more to Lacey than any of the others could understand. To see them, her friends and family, her loved ones, together again, all vibrant and full of life, had overwhelmed her in a way she had never expected. She didn't cry, it wasn't in her nature to let her emotions loose so easily, but she did take the hug that Toshiko offered. Her face buried in the older woman's hair, her words were drowned out to the rest of the world.

"Don't leave me."

"Shut the door luv, you're letting a draft in." Owen dumped his coat on the sofa, glancing back at Gwen who stood awkwardly in the open door. The last time she had stood in his apartment it had been _theirs_. Breathing deeply, as though she were preparing to parachute from a plane, she closed the door and silently walked over to the sofa.

"You can take the bed-"

"No." She could barely take being around him. Lying in his bed, immersed in his scent, knowing it was the same, but not her Owen. She didn't think she could take it. "The sofa's fine."

"Suit yourself."

"It must be hard." Toshiko glanced over at the silent girl as she poured them both a mug of steaming hot chocolate and searched for the marshmallows she'd seen a few days earlier. "Being outside of your own time. You must miss your family?"

"They're dead." The bluntness of her statement caught the older woman off guard and it took her a few moments to recover.

"I'm sorry." Toshiko had always found it a stupid thing to say when someone was dead, but she had no idea what else to say.

"They've been dead a long time." Lacey recognised the awkwardness in the way the other woman stood playing with the teaspoon in her hands. "Four years." They'd died when she was still a teenager, yet she'd spent the last year watching her adoptive parents raise their son, her older brother, while trying to pretend like everything was fine. Jack had forbidden her from warning them of what fate had in store for them. She hadn't see either Rhys or Sarah since she'd returned to the past. They'd just be beginning to date.

"Torchwood's been my family for the last year. That hasn't changed just because you guys don't know me anymore." She offered a half hearted grin as she took one of the mugs and poured a generous amount of marshmallows in to her cup.

"I feel like I've known you for ages." Toshiko couldn't stop the words leaving her mouth and she looked away sheepishly as soon as she'd said them. Lacey smiled, fighting back the urge to pull her in close and claim her ex-lover's lips.

"You were my best friend." It wasn't a total lie, they'd been the best of friends when Lacey had first arrived at Torchwood. Slowly she'd coaxed the older woman out of her shell. Toshiko smiled, a crimson blush still staining her cheeks.

"To friendship!" They both laughed as they knocked their mugs off each other, chocolate liquid spilling everywhere.

"Gwen." The Welshwoman groaned as she felt someone shaking her shoulder.

"Sod off, Rhys." She growled before turning over and nestling back down to sleep. "Cooper!" Owen's aggravated voice cut through the haze of sleep that clouded her brain and had her bolting off the sofa.

"What's wrong?"

He looked rough. His hair was messed from tossing and turning for half the night and he wore the clothes from the night before. After four hours sleep on a sofa she doubted she looked much better. "Jack called. He needs us in." He tossed her her jacket without further explanation and scooped up his car keys from the coffee table.

"What's going on Jack?" Gwen flopped in to a chair in the board room and glanced round at the others. "Where the hell is Lacey?" Toshiko sat alone on the other side of the table. "I have no idea. She wasn't in when Jack woke me up." Toshiko sighed. "I don't know if you've noticed but she doesn't exactly sleep much."

"Lacey's not important right now." Jack snapped, demanding their attention. "What is important is that there's rift activity. At three A.M this morning a meteor appeared on our sensors. It's set to land in the Brecon Beacons in less than seventeen hours." The others shuddered at the thought of their last trip out there.

"Then this has everything to do with Lacey." Gwen's eyes were wide with fear. "This is it."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **Torchwood doesn't belong to me. All I own is my imagination and Lacey (OFC)

**Rating: **T

"Where the hell have you been?" The second Lacey walked in to the hub she had Gwen on her back. After several days of constantly being checked up on she was sick of being treat like a child.

"Walking." Her single word response didn't help Gwen's mood.

"I called you three times!"

The blonde looked up through hooded lids and scowled. "And I ignored you three times. I thought you'd get it after the second time."

"Don't you give me that attitude young-" Lacey broke out in hysterics.

"You gave me away, so don't give me that mothering shit. Owen was the one who brought me to Torchwood. You killed yourself." She turned to walk off but was stopped by Gwen's vice like grip on her arm.

"I know you're hurting, but I'm trying my best here. We both miss him sweetheart."

"This isn't about him!" Lacey growled, pulling away from her grip with ease. "I'm not some kid you can suddenly start mothering. I'm an adult. I'm stronger and faster than anyone here. I don't need protecting."

"That's quite a claim." Both women turned to face Jack, He stood on the balcony looking down over them. "What makes you so strong?" He asked, a grin plastered over his face, but his tone sharper than usual.

"Growing up on my own." Lacey dismissed him with nod of her head and went off to find Toshiko.

"Kids huh?" He mused, leaving Gwen wondering just how much Jack already knew.

"Hey Tosh." The blonde stood leaning over her shoulder to take a look at what she was working on. "Is that a meteor?"

"Yes, it came through the rift this morning." Lacey's eyes dropped to the corner of the screen where the date and time were on display.

"That time already, huh?"

Toshiko's insistent typing abruptly stopped. "So this is the reason Gwen was taken to the future?" No one but Jack had been told what the outcome of the meteor crashing in Wales would be. They didn't need to know anymore than was necessary.

"Yeah." Lacey checked her watch. "We've got seven hours left. I'll get Ianto to prepare the kits and include some breathing apparatus…" She stopped as she realised she no longer held her authority within Torchwood. She'd practically been Jack's second in command after he'd adopted her as his protégée. He stood silently watching her before nodding.

"Let's move out people."

The car was cramped with the six of them piled in. With Owen driving and Jack in the passenger seat it left the other four in the back. Toshiko sat at her terminal keeping them updated on the meteor's movements while Ianto alerted various agencies to clear the area in a five mile radius. A quarantine which included said agencies.

"The meteor releases a bacteria that's airborne, it has a limited life cycle though. It'll only effect a one mile area for thirty to forty minutes. We'll be fine as long as we keep the breathing masks on...and stay out of the impact zone of course." Gwen had made it her first priority to replace her faulty mask as soon as she had returned. Nothing would go wrong this time. She would be safe and Owen would not get infected.

Once they were at the right co-ordinates they estimated where the meteor would land and, with Lacey's knowledge of its size, they set up a parameter. Once their preparations were finished they hung their gas masks around their necks before settling back in the car. At almost ten at night the crisp night air forced them to stay inside, waiting for the meteor to hit.

Lacey, ever one to defy convention, chose to sit on the roof of the car, her head titled back to watch the night sky. She was surprised as ten minutes after they'd all entered the car Toshiko re-emerged carrying a flask of coffee. "Thought you might need this." She extended her arm to hand her the flask and found herself being pulled up. "Come sit with me." The blonde's childlike grin made her impossible to refuse and with a quick step on to the bonnet, much to Owen's dismay, she was sitting on the roof beside the younger woman.

"It's beautiful." Toshiko gasped as she saw the approaching meteor, falling through space and heading right to them.

"It's deadly." Lacey added, squinting up in to the sky. "Most beautiful things are."

"We should go inside, it'll be landing soon." Toshiko didn't understand why or how the younger girl could make her feel so protected yet vulnerable at the same time. "Five more minutes." She muttered absently, barely playing attention to the fretting older woman. She watched as the cause of all her pain and misery hurtled towards the earth. It would end tonight. All the fear and the sadness, the threat of weevils and totalitarian police forces destroying her life. She was home, safe with Torchwood.

"Where are you?" Toshiko's question hadn't meant to sound like an accusation, but it caught the younger woman's attention all the same. "You just look so…distant." There was no other way to explain it. With her youthful face staring wide-eyed up at the meteor the blonde looked hauntingly lost within her memories.

"This piece of space rock, this night…it determined my entire life." Lacey tried to find the words she needed to make Toshiko understand, but she drew a blank.

"I understand." Toshiko sat quietly staring at her hands. "The night I met Jack, learnt about Torchwood…well it changed my life forever. I couldn't turn him down. It was like my path had already been chosen." The older woman desperately wanted to know why Lacey looked so haunted by the meteor.

"My parents were killed because of this night." Lacey finally admitted, her quiet words almost being lost in the night air.

"How did they…I mean…you don't have to tell me." She looked up awkwardly to find the blonde looking away from her, not at the sky, just anywhere from her.

"They were killed by Weevils. We were living in America and I was left on my own. Owen found me and brought me to Torchwood."

Toshiko let the conversation end there as the blonde jumped down from the roof and offered her hand to help her down. She couldn't shake the feeling that while the blonde had not lied to her it hadn't been the whole truth. Lacey Cassidy still remained very much a mystery.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **Torchwood doesnt belong to me. All I own is my imagination and Lacey (OFC) 

As the sky began to light up the team prepared for the impact, their breathing apparatus hanging limply around their necks until the time came to use them. 

When the meteor finally hit the SUV rocked from the impact and the grass just yards from the car caught fire. Pulling on the gas masks the team hastily left the car and began stamping out the fire before it could spread. Gwen clung to her working mask, knowing that she and Owen would be safe. All five masks were in working order. Five. Gwen's gaze darted up from the smouldering grass at her feet as she heard someone cough. The coughing quickly turned in to spluttering as the sixth member of their team began choking on a lung full of acrid air. She'd made sure she replaced her own mask with a working one from the supply room, but what had she done with the broken one? 

Her eyes widened as she realised she'd left it lying beside the other kits. The toolkits Ianto had collected, along with Lacey's gas mask. He'd taken the broken one. 

Inhaling as much clean air as she could she tore her mask off just as Lacey pulled her own off, realising it was useless and simply forcing her to breath the contaminated air. Before she could take another breath Gwen had the working mask over her daughter's face. Her eyes widened as she began to understand and her hands shot up to tear the mask off. Toshiko's hands caught the blonde's before they were even half way up. She recognised the determined look in Gwen's eyes and knew she would not accept the mask back. Both women seemed to be equally stubborn and both would probably die arguing over who got the mask. Lacey fought against the other woman but the oxygen starved air had left her faint and dizzy and the two women simply fell in a heap on the floor, Toshiko still pinning the blonde's arms to her sides. 

Gwen had no idea what the bacteria in the meteor would do to her. It could create a new breed of Weevil or simply kill her. After all it had been her blood which fought the infection and her and Owen's offspring that had killed the virus. Would her antibodies wage some sort of internal war against the alien bacteria? Almost a minute had passed since she'd removed the mask and she could feel her chest aching as her lungs screamed for air. She wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. Eventually she'd pass out and breath the air in anyways. Giving in she clamped her eyes shut and opened her to mouth to inhale. Her eyes snapped open as she inhaled clean, fresh, oxygenated air. Owen stood, with a bandana covering his face, holding the mask at her face as she greedily inhaled the oxygen her body had been denied. They couldn't share the mask though. One or both would become infected or die. Owen was the priority. 

"Mile." Gwen mumbled, her gaze telling him to obey her without question. The infection would only spread for a mile of uninhabited land. If he could run the mile without breathing in the air they stood a chance. 

Owen ran as fast as he could, the cloth over his face rubbing against his skin as he whipped between trees and down a steep slope. He ran on blind, unsure of how long he'd been running for or how far he'd gone. His legs felt like lead weights as the muscles began to cramp, unable to carry on without his red blood cells packed with oxygen. 

Holding his breath had been hard enough, but trying to run a mile without breathing was killing him. His lungs felt like they were going to explode, his vision began to go blurry and speckled with little white dots and his stomach lurched. He couldn't do it. Collapsing to the ground with exhaustion he inhaled as much air as he could. With no idea of how far he had ran he prayed it had been far enough. His chest still ached as he rapidly inhaled and exhaled. Taking in very little oxygen he lay hyperventilating on the ground, consciousness slowly slipping from his reach.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **Torchwood doesn't belong to me. All I own is my imagination and Lacey (OFC)

Owen?" A familiar voice tried to coax him awake. His eyes opened slowly, sticking together with sleep. His body was stiff and sore, as though he'd had too much sleep. Finally conscious he found Gwen leaning over him.

"How far?" His voice was cracked and hoarse, each word that he forced out burnt his throat.

"Half a mile." Gwen handed him a glass of water and fluffed his pillow as he drank. "Quite impressive without breathing really."

"Not impressive enough." He sighed flopping back down on the hospital gurney.

"Lacey took a blood sample." The silence in the room was deafening. "We'll know whether you were infected soon enough."

"And if I was?"

"We'll deal with it when the time comes." She dismissed his worries, continuing to fluff his pillows.

"How's it going?" Lacey took a seat on the edge of Toshiko's desk, knocking a sample of the meteor rock on to the floor. "Woopsie." She bent down to pick it up and found Toshiko staring at her in horror.

"You can't just pick samples up! They could be infectious!" Lacey put the rock down, wincing at Toshiko's reaction.

"Relax, the weevil virus is airborne, and it'll be dead by now. Besides you're not wearing gloves." It helped Lacey's piece of mind knowing that she had never had so much as cold before, thanks to her phenomenal immune system.

"I was!" Toshiko huffed. "I found another virus on the rock. It doesn't effect human cells though, only weevil DNA." She'd barely finished speaking before Lacey ran from her desk and jumped in to the basin, still fully clothed. Toshiko watched as she tore off her T-shirt and began scrubbing her hands with it. "What's going on?" Ianto walked in to the hub to find Lacey in the basin.

"I need bleach!" She roared, her voice almost inhuman. "Now Ianto!"

"What the hell is going on?" Gwen was next to walk in and find Lacey in the water, with Ianto handing her a bottle bleach.

After washing the bleach off Lacey sighed and lifted herself out of the water while Toshiko explained. "She came in contact with the meteor, it has a virus in, but it isn't harmful to humans, just weevils."

"Oh God."

"Someone want to tell me what's going on?" Jack stood at the top of the conference table glaring down at his team.

"Owen was infected." Lacey was the only one who dared to speak. "I might have been infected too. With a virus known as Weevil Flu."

"Flu?" Jack had heard of the weevil flu through various contacts. "It doesn't effect humans."

"I'm not human." Gwen sat silently as Lacey finally admitted her true nature. "I'm the first and only living weevil human hybrid."

"This flu drives weevils insane, they're drawn in by the city lights and they attack as many people as they can. Doesn't matter whether they're higher or lower level weevils. I don't know what the hell you are, or how this will effect you." Jack's voice was calm, but his tone held a hint of a threat.

"I don't know what it will do. I've never been exposed to it before."

"So if you have caught it Owen's going to be the least of our problems?"

"How the hell could you not tell us what she was?" Owen shouted, scowling in Gwen's direction.

"We were going to tell you eventually." Gwen tried to defend her actions. "I didn't know this could happen!"

"What else haven't you told us?" Lacey could see the torment in Gwen's eyes as she glared at the father of her child. He wouldn't be able to understand what had happened in the future or what had become of their lives.

"Nothing." The blonde answered for her before she could let anything slip.

"You're not supposed to look like someone's dying in front of the patient." Owen teased as Lacey entered his room, a lab coat over her newly dried clothes and a grim expression on her face. "Or didn't they teach you that in your GCSEs?"

"I started Med school when I was nineteen." Lacey sighed as he took seat next to him. "I've had private tuition too."

"So what's the diagnosis Doc?"

"Your blood work shows you were infected. You weren't as exposed as the first time, but it was enough." The blonde's expression remained grim and her voice strained. "Your body is fighting the infection-"

"Will it win?"

"No." She wouldn't offer him false hope. In all the time she had known him Owen had been honest with her. His bluntness was obviously genetic. "The virus will take forty-eight hours to establish in your system. They'll be the most painful hours of your life."

"Don't sugar coat it for me will you?" Owen sulked. He'd been expecting sympathy and had found none.

"It'll be a rough couple of days for both of us." Lacey taking a vial of her own blood.

"So you were infected too?"

"Different infection. Same outcome though." They sat in silence until Owen finally plucked up the courage to ask.

"So what's going to happen?" Owen sat up and pulled on his shoes.

"The virus will spread. It'll physically, mentally and emotionally change you. You'll have no control for the first forty-eight hours. You'll attack anything that moves. Including us."

"What about you?"

The blonde shrugged. She'd never experienced the virus before. "I have no idea."


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **Torchwood doesn't belong to me. All I own is my imagination and Lacey (OFC)

"Is this really necessary?" Owen pulled the thermometer out of his mouth as Lacey took the third blood sample in as many hours.

"I need to check how quickly the virus is spreading. I'll check you every few hours from now on." Taking the thermometer from his hand she frowned. "You have a temperature. Any other symptoms?"

"A stotting headache and a kid playing doctor?"

"Migraine, irritability and a temper-"

"So what's it like being a Weevil then? His question threw her off guard.

"I'm not a weevil. I have their strength and their abilities, but I have control over my anger. I'm not an animal.""Isn't that what I'll become? A smart weevil?" Owen asked in joking tone, but his eyes showed his desperation. He needed to be told he was still going to be human.

"You'll learn to control it…but you're still going to have an animal inside of you. If you lose your temper…You told me once that every time you lost your temper and you hurt someone, or you bit them, it was like you lost a part of your humanity."

He twirled the thermometer in his hands, obviously spooked by her intimate knowledge of him. It wasn't the kind of thing he'd tell just anyone. "How much can I lose before I'm not human anymore?" Lacey shrugged.

"I'm probably not the best person to ask…" She trailed off as she smelt the air and felt it change. "You can come in Toshiko, neither of us bite. Yet anyway." Toshiko entered the room looking sheepishly between the two of them.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt." She blushed, a deep crimson staining her cheeks. "How did you know it was me?"

It was Lacey's turn to blush as she answered. "I can pick your scent up from a mile away."

"I'll leave you to it." She could hear the knowing smugness in Owen's voice as he slipped out of the room, leaving the two women on their own. Toshiko stood awkwardly looking around the room before Lacey's questioning look made her explain her presence.

"Jack sent me to check on you." She watched as Lacey put Owen's blood sample under the microscope.

"Take a look." She stepped aside to let Toshiko peer at the slide. As the older woman's body brushed up against her she had to bite down on her lip to stop the growl that had started to form in her throat.

"It's amazing." Toshiko declared as she watched the weevil virus destroying Owen's cells and physically changing them. "Terrible, but amazing non the less."

"I don't think he's got long left before his body will start reflecting the changes going on in his cells. I really can't tell if it's affected his attitude yet. Irritable and grumpy tends to be his constant mood lately-""Gwen." Toshiko answered rather hastily, a hint of sadness burdening her soft features. "He was really worried about her when she was gone…I mean we all were, but Owen-"

"He loves her."

Toshiko scoffed. "I wouldn't go that far. It is Owen after all."

"He loves her!" Lacey repeated, her voice gruffer and her brow furrowed. She instantly saw Toshiko change. The almost laid back demure she'd began to develop around her shattered and her usual awkward shyness returned.

"Tosh-" She stepped forward, but the older woman took a large step backwards. "I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me."

"Perhaps you should inform Jack about your mood swings?" It broke her heart as Lacey realised the other woman was terrified of her. "Please don't be scared of me…I don't think I could handle it if you started looking at me like just another weevil…I'm not! I'm more than that-""It's be easier to not be afraid if your eyes weren't black." Toshiko admitted, prompting the young blonde to scramble over to the sink and the mirror hanging above it. Her face was pale, her cheek bones more defined than she ever remembered them, and her face set in a deep scowl as she studied herself. Most importantly though her eyes were an ebony black. "No…no…" The light in her eyes and the sterile smell of the room irritated her overly sensitive nose. She wanted to tear the room apart and plunge it in to darkness.

She was losing control.

"Run!" The words came out muffled as she buried her face in her hands, trying to hide her transformation from Toshiko. Ashamed to let the other woman see her humanity slipping away.

"Lacey-" Her hand was on her shoulder before the blonde could stop her. The touch and overpowering scent of her ex-lover sent the last of her humanity fleeing, leaving only the animal inside of her.

Toshiko screamed as Lacey suddenly grabbed her by both arms and glared at her, her lips peeled back to reveal brilliant white teeth that were unbelievably sharp. Her eyes were no longer pale but deep pools of black. There was nothing inside of them. Only anger. A lot of anger.

"Freeze!" Both women turned to face the unexpected intruder. Ianto stood with his gun in his hands, aimed squarely at the blonde's head. She cocked her head to the side, looking puzzled by the gun, like some sort of Neolithic creature, confused by the modern wonders of man. Ianto used her confusion to his advantage and fired a warning shot in to the air. He'd expected her to release Toshiko's arms and flee. He couldn't have been more wrong. A deep guttural growl erupted from Lacey's throat as she pushed Toshiko behind her protectively and turned to face a very pale Ianto.

"Run!" He didn't need to be told twice as Toshiko slammed a metal tray off Lacey's head and pushed past her.

As there footsteps pounded against the old stone tunnels they could hear the creature following them, its shrieks of anger echoing off the walls. It was no longer a human. It wasn't sweet, affectionate Lacey anymore. It was the enemy.


End file.
